Transcript 8.4 Notes - Cloudfront.net

8.4 Notes
The Presidency of John Adams
Objectives
• Discuss the reasons for tension between the
United States and France.
• Describe the main provisions of the Alien and
Sedition acts.
• Explain how controversy arose over states’
rights.
1
Recent actions by American leaders provoked
angry responses from the French people.
• U.S. neutrality
• the Jay Treaty
The French
snubbed a U.S.
diplomat and
attacked U.S.
ships.
2
In 1797, Adams sent a mission to France. This led
to a scandal known as the XYZ Affair.
French agents
demanded that the
U.S. pay them a large
bribe.
bribe
$$
The Americans refused. The French agents were
anonymously known as X, Y, and Z.
3
The XYZ Affair caused war fever in America.
Adams asked Congress to increase the size of the
army and rebuild the navy.
From 1798–1800,
the United States
fought an
undeclared naval
war with France.
4
Adams opposed a full-scale war with France.
He sent a new mission
to France to meet with
dictator Napoleon
Bonaparte.
In 1800, Napoleon agreed to stop seizing
American ships. Adams had avoided war.
5
In 1798, war fever drove Federalists to pass laws
to destroy their political opponents.
aliens
The Alien Act was
directed at aliens, such
as immigrants.
Republicans
The Sedition Act
targeted Republicans.
6
Alien Act
• Increased the duration, from 5 to
14 years, that a person had to
live in the U.S. to become a
citizen.
• Gave the President power to
deport or imprison any alien
considered dangerous.
7
Sedition Act
• The harshest law limiting free
speech ever passed in the U.S.
• Made it a crime for anyone to
write or say anything insulting or
false about the President,
Congress, or the government.
8
Passage of the Alien and Sedition acts renewed
the debate over federal versus state power.
Arguments for State’s
Rights
Arguments for Federal
Power
• The federal government
derives its power from
rights given to it by the
states.
• The federal government
derives its power from
rights given to it by the
American people.
• Because the states created
the United States,
individual states have the
power to nullify a federal
law.
• States have no power to
nullify federal laws.
• States cannot revoke
federal powers set forth in
the Constitution.
9
Republicans fought the Alien and Sedition
acts.
Kentucky and Virginia passed resolutions that
declared the acts unconstitutional. These state
resolutions had little immediate impact, but the
Alien and Sedition acts did not last long.
The Sedition Act
expired in 1801.
The waiting period
to become a citizen
was restored to 5
years in 1802.
10
The Virginia and Kentucky resolutions were far
more important than the laws that provoked
them.
They claimed
that states could
nullify a
law passed by
Congress.
The
resolutions
also boosted
the idea of
states’
rights.
11
How did problems with France intensify
the split between the Federalists and the
Republicans?
John Adams succeeded
Washington as President in 1796.
Adams immediately faced a crisis
over relations with France.
12